Alice Human Sacrifice
by distraught.hallelujah
Summary: In this intriguing take on the Vocaloid song "Alice Human Sacrifice", Len tells his sister Rin about Tweedledee and Tweedledum, twin Gothic Lolita girls who are quite the storytellers, who reveal the tale of Underland. They weave together this stunning tale in the halls of Underland, a story of the Alices who came before. Rated T to be safe, for mild horror and thematic elements.
1. Alice Human Sacrifice

_Call it dreamland, if you will,_

_A place to be found underhill._

_Call it wonderland, if you must,_

_That's all it needs to earn your trust._

* * *

"Many people like to imagine a world where dreams come true, perhaps because life isn't all that kind to them, or because they are miserable despite life being grand. In any case, there is only one place like that, and that is a place called Underland. I shall tell you this story with warning, for it is a darkly woven tale not for the faint of heart.

Underland is exactly as it sounds: a world underneath the 'upper world', devoted to making all your dreams come true. The problem with dreams is that not all of them are nice, and some can be very unwanted indeed. Sometimes, depending on how it is granted, the greatest wish can become the greatest curse. And that is why, in Underland, you must be careful what you wish for, because it will always, without fail, come true. I can tell you a bit about Underland, but if I should go into too much detail, please stop me, for Underland has a way of appearing even simply by mention or a passing whim, and many have lost themselves to it before they realize it.

Our tale begins in a forest where the trees are so thick that there is no sunlight above. Ahead of you, it looks like the trees almost bend together to form a tunnel leading into the darkness, with a pale foggy glow straight ahead, as though something invites you. You walk forward slowly, taking time with each step, and slowly your soft footsteps become loud, a tip-tap of heel on marble. As you keep walking, the forest floor becomes flat and even. The trees on either side of you become pillars. Very soon indeed, you find yourself in a vast hallway with great leaping archways, stone figures, and white and black checkerboard marble floors.

The hall around you is all black and white except for the huge vases of perfect, blood red roses, one on each side of the staircase that reaches up before you. At least, they had been blood red roses, but it seemed almost as though someone had tried to paint them white, and the roses now messily dripped white paint onto the floor below. I can't tell you why this was, but it was both a pity and a sort of artistic liberty that I can't argue with. Behind you is only the rest of the hallway, which fades into darkness, nothing more. Though there seems to be no light source, the whole black and white room gleams from within, light simply existing where light is needed.

One would naturally turn around slowly to see the hallway around them, and that's what you'd too, too. It seems like a dream through your vision, as though there was a pale glow cast about everything, and within moments it would be swallowed in darkness and you would wake up. But then again, there is the feeling of reality. There is the mildly dusty smell accompanied by the very faint scent of roses, and the air is cool against your skin. As you turn back to face the staircase, you notice what wasn't there before.

You are quite surprised to see two girls waiting there, having suddenly appeared at the bottom of the steps. They lean against each other, mirroring their poses, standing as still as statues. They must be twins, you think, for they match each other in every aspect, young girls that I would have guessed to be maybe eleven or so, skeletally thin, with lovely blond curls.

The dresses they wore were black Gothic Lolita with high necks, long sleeves, lace trimmings, and a full skirt with petticoats that stopped just below their knees, giving way to black knee socks and simple black shoes. They also had little black top hats balanced on the top of their heads, though the one on the left had hers tilting more to the right while the one on the right had a hat that tilted more to the left. As you saw them, they had already seen you. They looked at each other, then looked back at you and smiled together. The effect of their smiling together in such a way has startled even me before, so don't think the shivers that run down your spine make you special.

"You must be Alice," the first girl says. "We're Tweedledee…"

"… and Tweedledum," finishes the second.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," they say together.

You are quite shocked by the string of events, and can't seem to speak. But that seems to be fine, since the twins seem to have everything figured out anyway. There is a sort of feeling around them like they know what they're doing, almost as though they were much older than they looked. It is a feeling we share.

"It's quite all right," Tweedledee says. "We'll help you settle in just fine."

"But first," Tweedledum says, "now that the introductions are done and over with…"

"How about a story?" they ask sweetly.

You aren't sure if any story these odd people told would be something you'd want to listen to, but you are, after all, an open-minded person. And to be honest, in a place like this, you'd much rather listen to a story than imagine whatever else there was to do here.

"All right, then," you say. The girls smile. It feels like that was the right answer, which makes you wonder if there was a wrong one. But you were raised as a good listener, and these girls were beginning their story, so you settled down to listen like a good guest.

"You're not the only Alice, and definitely not the first, which is why we're not really surprised to see you," Tweedledee begins. "Let's see now… once upon a time…"


	2. The First Alice

"The first Alice was quite the young lady, if I remember correctly. Her name was Meiko. She had been raised in a strict environment and, being a teenager, she felt it was time she found herself. Her story as Alice began when she ran away from home, the naughty girl, and found herself quite lost. She was going to turn around and attempt to head back the way she came when, much to her surprise, a large white rabbit appeared."

"Sound familiar?" Tweedledum interrupts with a wink, much to your annoyance, breaking the image you had begun to form. I had been annoyed when this first happened to me, so I don't blame you. "The white rabbit, quite big for a rabbit, went on to astound the girl by taking a pocket watch from his coat pocket, for he wore a dandy little coat. As though to further confuse the poor girl, since perhaps he quite meant to, he then proceeded to speak…"

"'I'm late,' he said," Tweedledee took over. "And around here," she continues, "it is considered a very bad thing to be late. Why, in the old times, they would cut out a man's eyes for being late. 'If you couldn't have seen the time with them, you shan't need them next time,' the queen would say. It was in much the same way thieves would lose their hands, and the gossips, their ears. But then again, this isn't really about that, is it?"

"Of course not," Tweedledum agrees. "It's about our dear Meiko-chan. Then, without further ado, the rabbit, upon saying such, disappeared with a flick of his little white tail, bounding off into the forest. An odd sort of feeling came over Meiko then, and she felt compelled to follow the rabbit as best she could. You could call it fate, I suppose, that such a feeling overtook her. I mean, it's not normal, something like that. Though her human size was hardly suited for quick travel through the forests, she chased the rabbit nevertheless."

"Quite useless, if you ask me," Tweedledee interrupts.

"Oh, quite," Tweedledum agrees. They smile at each other.

"The rabbit," Tweedledee continues, waving her hand in a dismissive way, "disappeared into quite a large hole at the roots of a large tree, what would be assumed to be a natural phenomenon, though quite suspiciously well-placed."

At this point you, much like I had, felt momentarily compelled to share with the young storytellers the facts of a rabbit's den and lifestyle, directly proportionate, of course, to the size of the rabbit itself, but it really doesn't seem like the time for that, so you end up remaining uselessly silent.

"She found herself in much the same position as you," Tweedledum says thoughtfully. "And she quite enjoyed it, too. I suppose it seemed to her as though an entire world created itself just for her and her own whims. As I'm sure you can imagine, the years of rules that held her back escaping in one breath was, I'm sad to say, not very pretty. You should have seen her face. It was quite an affair, required a lot of cleaning up afterward."

"Luckily," Tweedledee continues, "the authorities arrived before _everyone_ had been killed."

Both girls grin at this, the sort of grin that entices a number of shivers from your spine.

"There were plenty of survivors," Tweedledum murmurs. "But sadly for dear Meiko, the girl who so wanted her freedom, she was kept in the dark behind bars, her arms and legs chained to the floors, as she slowly starved, weak and powerless. A fitting end, I should think."

"For a mindless criminal, I should ask for nothing more," Tweedledee adds, shaking her head slowly. "Honestly, to do something like that is just unthinkable." They look back up at each other, their eyes meeting, and they both smile innocently once more.

"But that was only the first," they say together, turning back.


	3. The Second Alice

"The second Alice was a man, Monsieur Kaito," Tweedledum says, nodding to herself. "Quite a handsome fellow. Popular with the girls. He was a young songwriter and composer. He wrote arias and sonatas for an opera house that grew quickly in fame. It did end up becoming the time for him to write his best work, but he had no inspiration for it. The people he knew were all nobles and scoundrels at the same time, he had not lived a life interesting enough to extract feelings from, and so he took a long vacation on a search for inspiration."

"As you might imagine," Tweedledee continues, "Monsieur Kaito came across tales and rumors about a different world from yours. The tales all said a mix of different things. Some said it was a wonderland, some said it was a place of nightmares. It really depended on who you asked, back then. After all, there were no first-hand accounts. In any case, Monsieur Kaito thought this would be the perfect thing to draw inspiration from."

"Therefore," Tweedledum took over in a sing-song sort of voice, "we'll say the place went to him, rather than him finding it first. The search absorbed his life very quickly. Many people were not sure if he still meant to write music, or if he was retiring altogether and becoming an explorer or scientist. It was when the owner of the opera house sent him a delicate inquiry that he was finally able to reach a breakthrough. He found little windows to this world in the ink he used to write with. As though greeting him like an egotistic gentleman, it danced out of his reach. The music he wrote became clouded scribbles, and then finally nothing more than spilled ink."

"Every time he drew something, in the moment the ink sunk into the page, he would see something from this world," Tweedledee explains lightly. "Of course, he could have been imagining it all, but that's really something that only he could say. In his insanity, he used his own blood as ink, covering paper with it and only getting glimpses into the so-called wonderland. Weak with anemia and sick in the mind, Monsieur Kaito put a gun to his own head, and…"

"No, no" Tweedledum interrupts, shaking her hand as though to push away your quickly-growing horror. "You forget," she says, pinching her twin lightly. "Monsieur Kaito was able to reach wonderland. After covering his room with ink, staining every cloth and piece of furniture black, it appeared around him. Or, for all we know, perhaps it was all in his mind that it appeared, but to him it was there, and he saw it. True to its name, it was a vast wonder, spread out over an entire world, with so many miracles in such a small place."

"Oh, yes," Tweedledee says, snapping her fingers. "I remember now. Forgive me for getting a bit ahead of myself. There were all manner of things one could draw inspiration from. There were mushrooms, one side of which makes you taller, the other side of which makes you smaller. There were people, some of which were the original and some of which had wandered into wonderland much like the Alices, but had adapted to the situation, much unlike the Alices, and had thrown away their memories of the other world."

"And the original people of the land," Tweedledum says, nodding, "were an assortment of oddities. There was a grinning cat, for instance, and a Mad Hatter."

"And a March Hare and a dormouse," Tweedledee adds.

"And a caterpillar, and a queen," Tweedledum finishes. "But the point of the matter is that there were many things to draw inspiration from. But perhaps it was too much for the young man, already mentally unstable, or perhaps it was another simple matter of fate, but it was then that Monsieur Kaito put a gun to his own head. It was most likely his attempt to open the world even more. Perhaps he hoped to find more secrets or a world under the world under. In any case, by staining the grass with his blood, he stained our world with his death, forever."

"And that was the second Alice to discover Underland," Tweedledee says, smiling.


	4. The Third Alice

"The third is my personal favorite," Tweedledee continues. "She was probably the most human of all of them, swallowed by greed and vanity long before she even began to think about our world. I will say quite honestly that humans are quite weak, so it came as no surprise to me when I learned this particular tale. While the first Alice came accidentally and the second was in a crazed panic, it was the third Alice, a beautiful young girl named Miku, who was suspiciously calm and calculating as she made her way into Underland. It was probably purposeful on our world's part. It does rather have a life of its own, after all. From what I remember of this tale, Miku didn't know anything about our world. It brought her here of its own accord, not of her desire."

"The lovely Miku was loved by all upon appearing here, of course," Tweedledum says. "She was sweet, kind, and beautiful, not to mention knowledgeable and wise. The people knew that, if anyone, she would make a fantastic Alice. But sadly, the Alices have never really had any luck. Her fame spread quickly, along with the love of people that quickly became _her_ people. The only problem was the Alice's rival, and that was the Red Queen."

"You know, of course, that the Red Queen is a lesser known character, not half as popular as the charismatic Queen of Hearts," Tweedledee says sadly, shaking her head. "The Red Queen had been around for a long time, but suddenly the newcomer had gathered more fame and popularity than the Red Queen had ever had, and in such a short amount of time. What many people don't know about the Red Queen is that she is usually quite nice, if a little jam-obsessed, but Miku was enough to turn the Red Queen's open-minded personality around a neat 180 degrees."

Tweedledum mimes decapitation, but you've grown to expect it by now, with the way the rest of the story had gone. It was a nice story, you thought, though perhaps a bit morbid. Creative nonetheless, though, isn't it? One of my favorites. But, I digress. "But not quite so kind, perhaps," Tweedledum says. "Instead, the Red Queen attempted to first talk to the third Alice about returning to her own world. But as we've already mentioned, the third Alice was a vain young girl, and she quite liked the attention, perhaps a little too much for her own good. She refused to submit herself to the Red Queen's wishes and return, saying that it was below a queen such as herself to do so. Also as we've already mentioned, the Red Queen is usually quite nice, but this Alice was particularly troublesome."

"So she was cursed," Tweedledee says, nodding energetically. "Cursed so that her beauty would fade and her skin would crumble, and only then did she reveal her true colors. The truth was that she had been deceiving the people who idolized her. She was, in fact, a power-hungry fool quite like the ones who came before her, though she hid behind her kind mask. With her beauty gone and her cursed body falling apart, a wailing Miku despaired and escaped to the mountains, where people say to this day she still rules the group of people that still believed in her, though she lives broken, constantly in fear of her decaying body."

"It never gets old, those stories," Tweedledum sighs. "They're always just as fun as the first time you tell them. Thoroughly entertaining through and through, do you not think so?" The question, you found, was directed at you, and you couldn't help but nod, however deep in thought you were about the stories you had just heard.

"Oh, but," Tweedledee says suddenly, interrupting your train of thought once more, as the talented though irritating storytellers tended to do, "we're forgetting once more."

"Oh?" Tweedledum asks. "What is it this time? It has been a long time since we told the stories, I'm afraid, so you'll have to forgive us for not remembering every word."

"No, no," Tweedledee says, shaking her head. She smiles slightly. "We're forgetting the fourth Alice, don't you remember?"

"Of course!" Tweedledum snaps her fingers. "How could I have forgotten?"


	5. The Fourth Alice

"Ah, the fourth Alice," Tweedledum says, smiling at the memory. "Now," she says, staring into the distance, "the fourth Alice was twin children, who had heard from somewhere the tales of the past Alices. If you remember how you arrived here, then you'll find it was quite like that. They found their way through a forest and into a hallway, this very hallway, in fact."

"Upon their arrival," Tweedledee continues, "they walked and explored for what seemed like days. They never left each other's side. They led many, many fine adventures, and had the time of their lives. They met the Jabberwocky, dined with the Hatter…"

"Drank tea with the Hare…" Tweedledum muses.

"Ate jam with the Red Queen…" Tweedledee muses similarly.

"Played cards and chess like good children," Tweedledum finishes, "and were even invited to the palace, where they met the Queen of Hearts. But, you see, all dreams, good and bad, must eventually come to an end, which can be good or bad just as the dreams are, and even dreams in real life follow the same rules. So, of course, the fate of the children was the same as the other Alices."

"Well, not quite the same," Tweedledee corrects gently. "You see, the fourth Alice came closest to being the true Alice. They were pure-hearted and innocent. Underland fell in love with them, along with the original characters, but not _too_ in love with them. It wasn't very long at all that they began to fit in with the world very well."

"Too well," Tweedledum says. "The twins fit in so well that they became originals themselves. Whenever the stories were told about that world, the twins were included. Of course, the stories sometimes got messed up, but they did as they did, the essence stayed the same. The sad part about the twins was that they slowly forgot everything, their parents, their families, and even their real names, the poor dears. So you see; it really is a sad ending for all of the Alices, because no matter what shape or form they ended in, none of them will wake up, since they're lost in wonderland."

Tweedledee and Tweedledum share a smile.

"But you know," Tweedledee says, "maybe you'll have better luck. You are the fifth Alice after all, are you not?"

"Of course," Tweedledum says, "by the fifth time, you'd think one of them ought to be just fine by the end. But, I do wonder how your story will go. We are the storytellers, after all. We've been here for as long as we can remember, telling this story, waiting for the next Alice to come along, so that we can add their story to the rest of them. But we _would_ like a happy ending, if possible."

"Of course," Tweedledee says, "there must be a happy ending."

But there's not always a happy ending. And as it would happen, that's when you realize it, your mind clicking together quite suddenly like an old dusty clock having just been repaired. _It isn't just a story._ That's right, it's history. Honest-to-goodness Underland history, from the first Alice to the fourth, and that's when you also realize that there's really only one set of twins one could possibly think of that became originals. And at that moment, you see the twins before you, in their black lacy dresses and little top hats with their dull golden curls and their skeletally thin bodies, and you realize that the eerily smiling young storytellers are in fact the fourth Alice.

And that's when everything begins to fall apart. And I do mean literally.

The ceiling above peels back like old wallpaper. The painted roses begin to shed their paint, then shed their petals, then crumble altogether. The staircase behind the twins is falling out, starting with the top steps, disappearing into the darkness. Everything begins to spiral into an abyss of nothingness.

"Leaving already?" Tweedledum asks, sounding quite crestfallen.

"But we haven't even gotten to the good part yet," Tweedledee says, smiling.

At this point, you begin to run, scrambling to your feet. The black hallway stretches out before you. Where is the forest? You couldn't possibly get stuck here, could you? Your mind shudders in fear. You don't want to become like them. The other people of this land must have been people too, from a long time ago, who became pieces of this place, just like the ghostly girls chasing behind. In fact, they were even closer now. You couldn't get away, no matter how quickly they ran. Though the black and white moved under one's feet, the walls stayed where they were. Did you think I would let you go? The story hasn't ended yet.

"The fifth Alice was a lot of fun," Tweedledum says, her eyes widening along with her smile. "The fifth Alice was the one that came here all alone, wishing for nothing, a completely normal person, and tried to run away upon hearing what ghastly things went on in the place of dreams. We would never hurt the Alice, only follow the tale until it finishes, but Underland had other plans."

"And so the tale continues," Tweedledee says, appearing next to her sister with the same wide eyes and grin.

"We make all sorts of dreams come true," they said together. "But not all of them are the good ones. That's why you need to be careful what you wish for."

"No!" you scream at last, a call of desperation. "Please, someone help me!"

But there is no one, only the blackness and the quiet, calm footsteps that chase you. It's too late. I warned you to stop before the story became too deep. I did say that Underland has a way of simply 'becoming' in one's mind. And, if you were thinking about it too deeply, it's probably there already. That's just how it works. I should know these sorts of things. I am Underland, after all. Next time, you should listen to what I say.

Oh, and it's far too late to save them. They won't wake up from their dream.

They're lost in wonderland."


	6. Epilogue

"That was fun, wasn't it?" Len asked with a smile. Rin slapped her brother's shoulder in response.

"It was _not_," she exclaimed. "When I said "let's tell ghost stories", I meant... I meant funny ones, like Casper and whatnot! What were you thinking, pulling that on me? You meanie!" She slapped him again lightly for good measure. Len laughed, as most boys tended to do after a job well done.

"But it was good, wasn't it?" he pressed.

"Yes," Rin admitted. She fidgeted a bit. "But... what happened to that fifth Alice?"

"It's a horror story, dummy," Len said, rolling his eyes. "The fifth Alice was probably skewered by something or fed to sharks or buried alive, or something like that. It has to be scary, no one said it had to be _complete_."

"Of course it does, it's a story," Rin pressed. "Come on, you have to finish it now."

"No, I don't," Len said, shaking his head and folding his arms firmly. "You'll have to think about it yourself. What do _you_ think happened to the fifth Alice?"

Rin's forehead immediately creased in thought. "Hmm..."

"You know what I think happened?"

"What?"

"I think... that the fifth Alice made it out of Underland safely, but wasn't really ever the same. The twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum chased after the fifth Alice all the way up to the normal world because they couldn't let Alice just go like that. Tweedledee and Tweedledum never found that Alice, and so for the years following, they stayed in the upper world searching and searching for the fifth Alice or Alice's descendents. They could be anywhere now."

"You know what I think?" Len asked, nodding thoughtfully. "I think you'll make a storyteller yet." Rin smiled and blushed a little, pleased by the compliment.

By the light of the moon behind them, twin shadows silently appeared in the window.


End file.
